Two senators are working on a plan B. While one is a Republican and the other a Democrat, they both support the governor’s initiative to ban illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses because she said it leads to fraud and crime. But the senators said they’re prepared to present another option if there isn’t enough support for the governor’s proposal.

“We would like to avoid another year of having this on the front burner,” Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said. “We have serious issues here in the state of New Mexico that need to be resolved.”

The compromise bill would allow illegal immigrants to get what’s called a driver’s permit. It would allow them to drive so they can still get to work and school, but it won’t allow them to use the card as identification. For example, it wouldn’t be permissible to use the permit to board an airplane or get into a federal building.

“We're trying to do something that's going to work,” Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said. “And we're going to try and make it something that everybody can be half pleased with.”

The driver’s license debate has been a heated one the last two sessions. The governor hasn’t supported compromise bills in the past because she said they haven’t addressed public safety concerns. She said she’s willing to work with lawmakers on a bill that might have a better chance of gaining support as long as it addresses those public safety issues.

Lawmakers said the voting may be different from years past since there are so many new faces this year.